Roses in bloom at Regional Plant Resource Centre in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, Dec. 16: By the end of the year, Regional Plant Resource Centre (RPRC) is set to have the biggest collection of rose varieties in eastern India.

The RPRC now has 330 rose varieties in its collection. It will add 750 more to its rosarium at Ekamrakanan, the public garden inside the centre.

Sources at RPRC said after the inclusion of 750 more rose varieties, the collection will become the biggest in eastern India.

The centre has already received 408 varieties of rose plants so far and the remaining are in transit and expected to reach the institute by the third week of December. Plantation of the rose varieties will be over by the end of December or first week of January.

Principal scientist (taxonomy and conservation) Pratap Chandra Panda said the existing roses were planted in the rosarium spread over two acres.

Three more acres will be spared for the rest of the rose collection at RPRC.

The institute will spend Rs 8 lakh for the new rose varieties and they are being procured from different horticultural gardens of the Central Horticultural Research Station. Most of them will come from Bangalore.

People will be able to see the new rose plants in the rosarium from February or March and they will be available for sale at the counter from 2016.

RPRC horticulturist Basant Mohanty said the present collection of 330 varieties was of four types — hybrid tea, floribunda, miniature and shining roses.

All the varieties are derived from these basic flower types. “We have 250 varieties of hybrid tea, 60 floribunda varieties, 12 miniature and eight shining varieties,” Mohanty said.

Roses in the RPRC’s present collection have many interesting names such as Bees Fascination, Bulls Red, French Perfume, Gladiator, Raja Ram Mohan Ray, Taboo, Taj Mahal, Tata Centenary, Christian Dior, Custard Becker, Devil’s Delight, Perfect Moment, Cry Cry, Kiss of Fire, Kasturi Rangan, Lady-X, Mad God, Lover’s Meeting, Mother Teresa, Loving Touch, Torch of Liberty, My Valentine, Victor Hugo, Play Girl, Julia and Pearl.

Subhranshu Patnaik, a resident of Jayadev Vihar who frequents the RPRC garden, said: “I have collected many rose varieties from the sales counter of RPRC. I look forward to buying more varieties in 2016 for my terrace garden.”

Established in 1985, the plant resource centre has a collection of 1,600 plant varieties. Interestingly, in its 487-acre sprawling campus, the RPRC has also got a collection of 463 animal species including reptiles, fishes, mammals, birds and butterflies. It also has an impressive collection of cacti.